Principles for Relationships from God's Word by Claudio Consuegra

The value of bedtime stories – 1

So He told a parable to those who were invited, when He noted how they chose the best places. Luke 14:7 (NKJV)

According to Dr. Perri Klass[i] in 2014 the American Academy of Pediatrics issued a policy statement saying that all pediatric primary care should include literacy promotion, starting at birth. As he explains, “That means pediatricians taking care of infants and toddlers should routinely be advising parents about how important it is to read to even very young children.” The statement of the AAP was based on the extensive body of research on the links between growing up with books and reading aloud, and later language development and school success.

According to Klass, two new studies examine the unexpectedly complex interactions that happen when you put a small child on your lap and open a picture book. According to these studies, “Children whose parents reported more reading at home and more books in the home showed significantly greater activation of brain areas in a region of the left hemisphere called the parietal-temporal-occipital association cortex” As Klass explains, “This region of the brain is known to be very active when older children read to themselves, but Dr. Hutton notes that it also lights up when younger children are hearing stories.” What was particularly new was that children who were exposed to more books and home reading showed significantly more activity in the areas of the brain that process visual association, even though they were just listening to a story and could not see any pictures.

These studies demonstrated that when kids are hearing stories, they’re imagining in their mind’s eye when they hear the story. Therefore, as they look at picture books and listen to stories, children may develop skills that will help them make images and stories out of words later on. As one of the authors of these studies explain, “It helps them understand what things look like, and may help them transition to books without pictures…It will help them later be better readers because they’ve developed that part of the brain that helps them see what is going on in the story.” Perhaps that’s why Jesus told stories that even children could understand.